Steve Gress: Raiders win a thriller Comments
Crescent Valley High football fans might want to thank Mark Geniza for Friday night’s thrilling 29-26 Mid-Willamette Conference victory over Silverton at the Field of Dreams.
Sure, Geniza kicked three extra points, but that wasn’t his biggest contribution.
No, it was Geniza who told fellow receiver Eric Aust to change his pattern with less than 45 seconds left in the game.
Aust said he was supposed to run an out route, but Geniza told him to run a seem route.
So Aust made eye contact with quarterback Grant Mattes, and the two teamed up for an 18-yard pass to the 2 with 36 seconds left.
Aust did have to go up high for the catch, but he made it look easy.
One play later Andre Oglesby scored and the Raiders had the biggest win ion coach Scott Sanders’ two-plus years at the helm.
“This one is the best one we’ve had,” Sanders said. “The crowd was great and besides my first one against Lebanon, just because that was the first one, this one right here, this one’s it.”
When Mattes batted down a desperation pass by Silverton quarterback Nic Reinhard in the end zone as the final horn sounded, the Raiders stormed the field.
“This one can get us to state,” Mattes said. “This game, you never know what happens with CHS, West (Albany), but I think this game got us to state.”
The excitement was evident with Mattes, however he and his fellow teammates know there is still plenty of work to be done.
But the Raiders are off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 1977 and are 2-0 in conference.
Last year, a 19-7 loss to Silverton eventually kept the Raiders out of the playoffs, so you can understand where Mattes was coming from.
“This shows that if we believe, good things are going to happen,” Kyle Gardner said. “That’s what happened. We’re going to come out next week and work twice as hard and keep on going.”
Added Aust: “We’re going to get in that locker room, we’re going to celebrate and next week we’re going to put this all behind us and get after the next game.”
Mattes showed poise in the pocket and made good decisions on the game-winning drive.
He hit Colby Eason for seven yards, then found Colton Kelsey for nine and Eason again for eight to set the Raiders up at the 20 with 44 seconds left.
That’s when he and Aust made eye contact and connected for 18 yards and a first-and-goal at the 2.
“He’s experienced in that situation,” Sanders said of Mattes, who was 13-for-21 passing with 119 yards and no interceptions.
“We watched him as a freshman do that and lead them down and do that. We knew he was the right guy at that time to do that.
We still love Chase (Cochran) and we’re going to play them both, but in that situation Grant was the guy to lead us down there.”
While the offense gets credit for the winning drive, it was the Raiders’ defense that really deserves credit.
CV had a tough time stopping Silverton in the first half as the Silver Foxes had close to 280 yards of total offense. They had less than 30 in the second half.
“Once we could get our collective thoughts in the locker room as a staff, we knew what they were running, they were running leads and draws off tackle and they were hooking our tackles and we just made some adjustments,” Sanders said.
The players made the adjustments.
“The defensive line had some different gap responsibilities,” Gardner said. “We all did our gap responsibilities and we just shut them down. We all did our job and it was great.”
CV is on the road for the next three games, beginning with Dallas next Friday. Then the Raiders head to Lebanon before a trip to face Glencoe in a nonconference matchup.
The end of the season has CV home against South Albany, Corvallis and West Albany.
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